Eleanor Caithness Will Kuser

May 10, 2007

PRINCETON, N.J. — Eleanor Caithness Will Kuser, 80, of Princeton died at Merwick on May 1 of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Born in Baltimore, Md., she was the daughter of the Rev. Theodore St. Claire Will and Mary Eleanor Hardinge. Her father's career as an Episcopal priest moved the family to Kentucky and Virginia, but she considered Atlanta, Ga., her home, where her father was rector of All Saints Church. She was a graduate of Washington Seminary, now called the Westminster School in Atlanta. She met and married her husband of 55 years, John Erdmann Kuser, in Atlanta. They moved to Princeton in 1953.

While raising three daughters, she volunteered with the Red Cross, the Junior League, the Hospital Auxiliary, the Hospital Fete, Planned Parenthood and was a staunch supporter of Stuart Country Day School of the Sacred Heart where she founded the Hardy Mums. She was a founding member of the Contemporary Garden Club of Princeton, a member of the Garden Club of Trenton and the Metropolitan Club in San Francisco. She was a former member of the Bedensbrook Club, the Pretty Brook Tennis Club and the Present Day Club. She was an active member of Trinity Church in Princeton.

While living in Corvallis, Ore., in the late 1970s, she founded the Corvallis Women's Tennis Association, was a working member of the Portland Art Museum and organized tours for the Honors Program at Oregon State University.

Eleanor was a fearless and adventurous woman. Her gift was in bringing people together. She was a quiet philanthropist, loaning money to found small businesses, and for young couples to buy their first houses. She gave generously of herself. Eleanor was courageous in her own battle with lung cancer, which she survived in 1993. She had an extraordinary capacity for delight in other people and was always interested in new things including learning to use a computer in her sixties.

She is survived by her husband, John E. Kuser; her daughters, Olivia Erdmann Kuser of San Francisco, Calif., Caryl Hardinge Kuser of Princeton, Eleanor Caithness Kuser of Montecito, Calif., and a grandson, Emilio Alejandro Madrid-Kuser, also of Montecito. She is also survived by a brother, Theodore St. Clair Will of Atlanta, Ga., and a sister, Austina Will Norris of Savannah, Ga.

A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. Tuesday, May 15, at Trinity Episcopal Church. A reception is to follow at the Nassau Club. Her ashes will be interred privately in the Memorial Garden at Trinity Church.